This account begins in tragedy. Shortly after noon on Friday, May 11, 1979, Peter Linsley, 35, and Jane Linsley, 28, both of Concord, New Hampshire, walked unannounced through the open door of the rectory at Saint Rose of Lima church in Littleton, NH, a town of (then) about 5,400 in the north of that state. A year earlier, in May, 1978, Peter Linsley was discharged from the state psychiatric hospital after he was declared no longer a danger to himself or others. He previously entered a plea of innocent by reason of insanity to a charge of aggravated assault on a police officer in July, 1977.

As the Linsleys barged into the Littleton church rectory in May, 1979, two parishioners, Mrs. Patricia Lyons and her son, Michael, had been working inside. The home invaders brandished a pair of .357-caliber Magnum revolvers and declared themselves to be “King and Queen of the Church” sent there by God to “cleanse the temple.” They demanded to see the parish priest.

The priest assigned at Saint Rose of Lima parish at the time was the Rev. Stephen Scruton. As the drama unfolded in his parish rectory that day, Fr. Scruton was aboard a plane somewhere over the Atlantic headed for a vacation in Ireland. With her son held at gunpoint, Mrs. Lyons telephoned Rev. Joseph Sands in the nearby town of Lancaster, about 15 miles away. She asked the priest to come immediately. A half hour later, Father Sands became the Linsleys’ third hostage.

After the arrival of Father Sands, the couple ordered Mrs. Lyons to retrieve a dog left in their car, but once outside she ran for help. Meanwhile, the priest convinced her son, Mike, to escape by jumping from a second floor window, reportedly telling him, “If you want to get out alive, get out quickly.” Father Joe Sands thus made himself the sole hostage.

Mrs. Lyons went right to the police. Within a half hour, a State Police SWAT team surrounded the parish house, and established a telephone link with the Linsleys. The tape-recorded negotiations went on for the next five hours, ending at 5:22 PM when four shots were fired inside the rectory. Peter Linsley murdered Father Joe Sands, then shot and killed Jane Linsley, and then, finally, turned his gun on himself.

At the time in 1979, sitting New Hampshire Governor, the late Honorable Hugh Gallen was a native of Littleton and a friend of Father Stephen Scruton whose vacation was cut short as he was quickly returned to a parish mired in tragedy. According to a priest who had once lived in that rectory with Father Scruton, Governor Gallen took command of the scene and ordered the five hours of taped negotiations between the Linsleys and police negotiators to be sealed. The tapes never became public.

That priest, the late Rev. Maurice (Moe) Rochefort, was a friend of both Father Joe Sands and Father Gordon MacRae. MacRae once wrote of him in an article entitled “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.” “Father Moe” reportedly once told MacRae that the Littleton rectory and its parish priest were not random targets. He said that the gunman sought revenge against Father Stephen Scruton specifically for some unknown previous encounter at the church. That has long been rumored among priests of the Diocese of Manchester who knew Scruton, but none would respond to inquiries about Father Scruton or this incident.

A few years ago, Father MacRae wrote a haunting and deeply sad article entitled “Dark Night of a Priestly Soul.” It was about a priest he knew in his Diocese who 10 years ago tragically took his own life after an accusation surfaced against him from 1972. That accusation was also alleged to have occurred at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Littleton. The accuser in that case also accused another priest, Fr. Stephen Scruton.

During the five years before the tragedy that took the life of Father Joe Sands, Gordon MacRae had been a seminary student with the New York Province of the Capuchin Order. After completing the one-year Capuchin novitiate in 1974, MacRae was assigned to Saint Anthony Friary in Hudson, NH from where he attended nearby Saint Anselm College. He graduated with degrees in philosophy and psychology, with honors, in 1978. During the summer of 1978, the young seminarian sought the counsel of fellow Capuchin and mentor, Father Benedict Groeschel, as he discerned leaving the Capuchins to pursue graduate studies in theology as a diocesan priest.

It was an amiable transition. For the next four years (1978 to 1982) seminarian Gordon MacRae studied at St. Mary Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland where he earned simultaneous degrees in divinity and pastoral counseling, and a Pontifical degree in theology. His summers were spent working in three New Hampshire parishes.

A year after the tragic death of Father Sands, in June of 1980, Father Stephen Scruton was transferred from Littleton to Saint John Parish in Hudson, NH on the state’s southern border. Because seminarian Gordon MacRae had lived in that community as a Capuchin, he requested to be ordained at Saint John church on June 5, 1982. He was the only candidate for priesthood ordination for the Diocese of Manchester that year. It was there, in late May and early June of 1982 that he first met Father Stephen Scruton.

In an article last year on These Stone Walls entitled, “The Expendables: Our Culture’s War Against Catholic Priests,” Father MacRae wrote of some especially challenging conditions in his first assignment as a priest about an hour’s drive from the town in which he was ordained. For an occasional day off, he would drive to Hudson where he had developed many friendships during his years as a Capuchin. On a few occasions, he also visited the three priests at Saint John Parish in Hudson.

During one of those visits in 1983, a Hudson parish secretary pulled Father MacRae aside and told him of a troubling incident in the rectory. She said that she suspected that Father Scruton’s assistant, Father Mark Fleming, had been sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in this rectory. She told Father MacRae that she saw nothing specific, but that her instinct on this was very strong. She said she tried to discuss this with Father Scruton, but he brushed it aside and told her not to mention it to anyone else. Father MacRae reportedly told her that if she saw anything at all that caused her to make such a conclusion, she was obligated to report it to police. Other than that conversation, Father MacRae had no connection whatsoever to that case.

Soon after in 1983, Father Stephen Scruton reported to officials in the Diocese of Manchester that he walked in on and witnessed his associate, Father Mark Fleming, in a sexual incident with a minor boy from the parish. A report was made by the Diocese to state officials as required by New Hampshire law, and the state launched an investigation.

Nothing of this became public until two decades later when the Diocese of Manchester released its priests’ personnel files in an unprecedented agreement with the State Attorney General’s Office. It was revealed only twenty years after the 1983 investigation by the state, that Father Fleming had abused three boys, all brothers. No criminal charges were filed, but Fleming was removed from ministry and placed at a psychiatric treatment center in St. Louis. In a 2003 article, the Nashua (NH) Telegraph reported on this story (Albert McKeon, “Priest Turned in another, then was also caught,” March 6, 2003).

In 1984, a year after the Hudson case involving Fathers Scruton and Fleming, Father Stephen Scruton was arrested for lewd conduct and indecent exposure at a highway rest area near Londonderry, NH. According to news accounts, those charges were dropped when he agreed to a plea deal for a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass. Scruton was placed on leave of absence for six months, then assigned to a small parish in Bennington, NH to replace a priest on sick leave. Upon that priest’s return, he complained to Diocesan officials that Father Scruton embezzled parish funds. The priest threatened civil litigation. Scruton was placed on leave again. During this period he was arrested a second time for lewd conduct and indecent exposure at a highway rest area in Massachusetts. Those charges were never fully processed.

In June of 1985, Father Stephen Scruton was assigned as pastor of Saint Bernard Parish in Keene, NH where Father Gordon MacRae had already served as associate pastor for the preceding two years. In a protracted statement entitled, “Affidavit of Rev. Gordon MacRae” posted on These Stone Walls, MacRae described in detail the next two years in that parish with Father Scruton. This document is well worth the time to understand the nightmarish conditions faced by MacRae in these years of priesthood.

After multiple incidents described in Father MacRae’s Affidavit linked above, Father Stephen Scruton was arrested once again for lewd conduct and indecent exposure at a highway rest area near Keene. His arrest occurred on the afternoon of Easter Sunday in 1987. In police reports, Father Scruton cited the stresses of Holy Week as the cause for his behavior. He pled guilty to the charge in Keene District Court.

To Father MacRae’s shock, Scruton was not immediately removed from the parish by Diocese of Manchester officials. In fact, MacRae heard nothing from anyone connected to his Diocese throughout Scruton’s arrest and the subsequent news accounts. Father Scruton granted an interview with a Keene Sentinel reporter to tell of how his arrest was an “opportunity” to educate the public about sexual addiction. It was then that Father MacRae picked up the phone and called Church officials to demand Scruton’s removal from the parish. Scruton was sent to a treatment facility in Golden Valley, MN, but not before a local bank official called Father MacRae to report Scruton’s embezzlement of $20,000 in parish funds.

Six years later, in 1994, Father Gordon MacRae faced criminal charges and simultaneous civil lawsuits brought by three brothers, Thomas, Jonathan, and David Grover alleging abuses from sometime between 1978 and 1983. Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote masterfully of the details of MacRae’s trial and the charges brought by these brothers and other related claims in “A Priest’s Story: The Trial of Father Gordon MacRae,” in April, 2005, article in The Wall Street Journal.

Jonathan and David Grover, the first of the Grover brothers to make accusations, claimed to have been repeatedly assaulted in Saint Bernard Rectory in Keene, and in other places, by both Father Gordon MacRae and Father Stephen Scruton acting both separately and simultaneously. Both brothers claimed that these assaults first occurred when they were twelve years old.

An immediate and never explained problem was that Father MacRae was never inside the Keene rectory until June of 1983 when Jonathan Grover was 14 years old and David Grover was just two weeks shy of turning 18. Father Scruton was never inside that rectory until June of 1985 when these brothers were ages 16 and 20 respectively. However, Father Scruton refused to answer any questions put by Father MacRae’s defense before trial, and fled the state when an attempt to subpoena him.

As these facts emerged pre-trial, the investigating police detective apparently did nothing to investigate or question them. He recorded no interviews, left no evidence to determine who said what to whom and when. At one point, he gave the Grover brothers a copy of Father MacRae’s resume so they could get their dates straight. Then he simply eliminated Father Stephen Scruton from all future reports in the case as though his name had never come up.

The progression of this story from this point on is utterly shocking, and was documented by me in “Truth in Justice: Was the Wrong Catholic Priest Sent to Prison?” I have no lingering doubts about the answer to that question, and neither will you if you read on. I recommend scrolling to the subheading, “Part II: Déjà Vu,” and reading from there.

After the onslaught of mediated settlements as described by Father Byers last week, many deceased priests of the Diocese of Manchester were accused, and could do nothing, of course, to defend themselves or their names. Nearly 30 years after his tragic death, Father Joe Sands was posthumously accused. Remember David Pierre’s great article in these pages one year ago, “Kicking the Dead and Collecting Cash.”

Justice for Father Gordon MacRae has a long way to go. If you are inclined to help, the “Contact” page of These Stone Walls describes how readers may assist with the ongoing costs of this legal and investigative effort, and with support of These Stone Walls.

About Fr. Gordon J. MacRae

The late Cardinal Avery Dulles and The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus encouraged Father MacRae to write. Cardinal Dulles wrote in 2005: “Someday your story and that of your fellow sufferers will come to light and will be instrumental in a reform. Your writing, which is clear, eloquent, and spiritually sound will be a monument to your trials.” READ MORE

Comments

Where is Edward Arsenault incarcerated? He is the key to all of this. I talked with him years ago about the suicide of Father Lower. I always believed him to be a fraud and absolutely insincere. Now look at him!

Here is how the Monsignor Edward Arsenault story unfolded. After pleading guilty, and shaking hands with his Prosecutor in a notorious photo in which everyone is smiling, Edward J. Arsenault was sent to the NH State Prison to commence a sentence of 4 to 20 years. At the end of April, 2014, exactly one month to the day after his arrival he was transferred to the Cheshire, NH County Jail to serve out his sentence. The newspapers said that he will likely serve most of his sentence under house arrest as some part of a back room deal. Many people believe with good cause that he was moved away from the State Prison so that he would never have to encounter Father Gordon MacRae or answer any of his many questions. The State motto up there is “Live Free or Die.”

Fr. G, you are in my daily prayers. Please say hi to Pornchai-Max for me, and I hope you received the letter I sent you recently.

I suppose I should be praying for Edward Arsenault’s soul – that he starts to think about eternity, and where he might be spending it. But then, I don’t suppose he believes that he has an immortal soul, as I cannot conceive of anyone who truly is a follower of Our Lord acting the way and doing the things this Arsenault man has and done. I just cannot bring myself refer to him with the title one gives to a priest. …

I’m so sad reading all this about Fr. MacRae. I will get around to donating soon. And, maybe writing him a letter with something copied from the net since he can’t get news or magazine clippings. Terrible. I sent magazines to someone in Federal Prison which was falsey accused, because if plead “not guilty” he may have gotten 27 yrs., so he said “guilty” and got a light sentence in easy prison of 1 1/2 yrs. It was like Army Camp. I know that even I was arrested on false accusation in CA. I got excellent lawyer and the whole thing has been taken off records, even though I was going to sue the police, as they did everything wrong, the lawyer said to “wait.” It gets to be too much to defend yourself (and expensive). I’m appalled the church proclaimed all guilty for the good of the church (to save money) I am also sad that Fr. Groeschel was yanked off EWTN TV because he defended these priests, and the media was outraged. Fr. Groeschel was RIGHT, and I miss him. There are too many politics in Church and not enough of Jesus’ forgiveness and reasoning (who can cast the first stone) There have been “victims” who are false, also, just as the 9/11 victims that made up stories. This discredits the real victims. Please help get Fr. MacRae out!

It must be confounding to you Father Gordon that Father Arsenault of the Diocese of Manchester who treated you with such disdain and cruelty is now himself suspended from all ministry and is under legal scrutiny for an inappropriate adult relationship and for misuse of funds from the Diocese of Manchester; plus, he has also been removed as the Director and CEO of the Saint Luke’s Institute, a treatment center for clergy suffering from addiction and other health issues. My goodness! What pain this man has caused.

I’m a little confused. I am going to have to re-read this in the proper order. But I understand enough to realize that there is a most evil force that is being cooperated with at many levels. I am inspired that the good souls, especially Fr G, are on the same side always.
My prayers continue. And when it is all over, and Fr G is free, consider turning it into a movie.

I have been following this website and Fr. MacRae for over a year now. Don’t remember what month in 2012 that I read that Fr. MacRae’s attorney was seeking a new trial date. He acquired more information and how the accuser’s lied on numerous other accusations! When is the new trial coming up???
I hope and pray very soon. Fr. MacRae is many, many years PAST DUE for his FREEDOM!!!!

@ Dave Coltin – I’m not able to comment on your question: Did AG Eric Holder Shut Down the Investigation of Senator Ayotte? I do note that Ayotte is one of those “pro-lifers” who sides with most pro-abortion “exceptions.” She has made pro-family, pro-gun statements, and is considered a conservative Republican (for whatever that’s worth these days), and was endorsed by John McCain, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Haley Barbour and Rick Santorum, with her name being floated more recently even as a 2012 vice-presidential running mate for Mitt Romney. But, let’s put aside any and all other possible political conflicts of interest anyone might have, and look just as Father Gordon MacRae’s case.

To all intents, constructions, and purposes that one might imagine in this regard, it really does seem that, from the very beginning – and just as Ayotte was skyrocketing in her career – the Attorney General’s office was in collusion with Father Edward Arsenault and Bishop John McCormack so to obtain, by way of fraud, the confidential files of Father Gordon MacRae that he wanted to give to a defense lawyer, with this fraudulent obtaining of these files having the end of publicly publishing those files without his knowledge or consent. This, it seems to me, transgresses any reasonable understanding of confidentiality laws, an action having adverse effect on all confidential communications of all priests without exception across the country, regardless of guilt or innocence.

Can a bishop bypass confidentiality laws? Can an Attorney General utilize a third party in order to bypass confidentiality laws over against the person involved? Are there civil or criminal penalties, or none at all? Just asking…

At any rate, by the time of Ayotte’s election as a Senator, all of this seeming collusion seems to have cemented into a long-standing close friendship between herself and Father Arsenault, as we see from one of the emails that escaped the last minute email purge at the Attorney General’s office:

Dear Kelly,
You will be great in Washington.
I look forward to having dinner with you
and Joe upon arrival.

In other words, this isn’t just glad-handing someone who’s also from New Hampshire and now in Washington, D.C. as a newly elected Senator; this email instead assumes entitlement to an intimate dinner as a top priority for someone who will be otherwise be utterly mired in a steep learning curve as a newcomer to D.C. politics. Just. Wow.

At any rate, just based on Ryan’s great article, what seems to be happening is that the Diocese of Manchester was and is interested in protecting their policy of immediate and even blanket settlements no matter what, that is, regardless of the guilt or innocence of any particular priest. Such settlements save thirty pieces of silver. See The Judas Crisis and The National Catholic Risk Retention Group (TNCRRG). But didn’t Father Arsenault and the Diocese of Manchester, N.H., need and don’t they continue to count on collaboration from the all too accommodating Attorney General’s office? The kickback for the Attorney General’s office is that everyone gets to play the hero for being tough on abusers – regardless of whether they are actually innocent – with Ayotte herself becoming always more the all around electable hero.

Note that it is precisely because Father MacRae was admittedly known to be innocent by the Diocese of Manchester that he had to be put down in favor of their policies which have it that everyone is automatically guilty, no matter what.. Do the math like a cynic. Holding everyone to be guilty and paying out immediate and even blanket settlements is the only way it is thought by the likes of a Father Arsenault that a diocese can save money over against the risk of outcomes of any litigated proceedings. If Father MacRae’s case were to be overturned, this would throw the policies of Father Arsenault’s The National Catholic Risk Retention Group into confusion, that is, effectively, the policies of immediate and even blanket settlements of most all (arch)dioceses in the United States, particularly Boston and Manchester, N.H. Cooperation of Church and State to hold all priests automatically guilty is thought to be good for all, but this is the old Judas-priest’s cry, Pro bono Ecclesiae! (For the good of the Church!), enabling doing evil so as to pretend that one is achieving good, which is explicitly condemned as worthy of hell by Saint Paul (Romans 3,8).

But, of course, lack of due process for anyone is not good for anyone, and in the long run, hurts real victims, who will be ignored when people get so fed up with false accusations that they will brow-beat even real victims into silence. Giving the green light to false accusations is to re-rape real victims.

Those who collaborate in whatever way in insuring that there is to be no due process for priests are collaborators in abuse. It needs to stop. It needs to stop now.

I suggest that the Attorney General’s office tell the full truth – with a time-line – about what happened concerning Father Gordon MacRae, including details and names of all involved. That kind of honesty helps everyone.

I don’t understand why the church let Fr.Scrutun go from parish to parish and why he never ended up in jail.
What was this vendetta against Fr. Gordon that they abandoned him?
I have lost faith in many of the Bishops and hierarchy but not in my Church. They have a lot to answer for. Some one of them needs to have the guts to step forward and right this, embarrassment be damned!
God knows that Fr. Gordon is innocent and the truth will eventually set him free. Maybe this should go directly to the new Pope.
Thank you Ryan for bringing this to light. God bless you.Prayers for you and as always for Fr. Gordon.

I am so thankful you are telling us the truth about the horrid treatment by the Church of our beloved Priests, including Fr Gordon MacRae. I pray daily the truth will come out and he will be free. A real tragedy and am angry with our Church for not standing by this suffering Priest.

Ryan and anyone else interested in helping Fr. Gordon. Please Google:
Did Eric Holder Shutdown the investigation of Senator Ayotte? and also
Will the turth come out about Ayotte? This is another 1994 case of another sort showing clearcut prosecutorial abuse and overreach that the State Department of Justice continues to cover-up in order to protect its own. Credibility comes from the fact that it has reached the ears, if not the eyes of United State Attorney General Eric Holder. A joint effort in exposing Senator Ayotte and the entire NH Department of Justice could go a long way in helping Fr. Gordon. I can be contacted at davecoltin@netscape.net.

Dear Ryan, I am truly heartened by this fresh and persuasive appeal on behalf of Fr. Gordon MacRae. Our united and concerted efforts to champion his innocence will unfailingly meet with success. As a matter of fact, the desired outcome appears to be imminent. In the words of St. Paul, “If God be for you, who can be against you? Thank you most sincerely, Ryan!

I heartily second the idea of sending the whole package to the present bishop of Manchester… the injustice done here must be corrected, and the slate made clean – the dirty slate of the diocese, that is! I pray for Father Gordon, and feel sure that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Father has achieved great good where he is… but he shouldn’t be kept there!

Fr MacRae has given so much of his life already…and I have no doubt he has united his sufferings with Christ’s for conversion of sinners. We know there was a purpose for all this. But prayers are rising that Fr MacRae may finally be released.

This breaks my heart. Certainly no justice in the criminal system, and seems to be very little more in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Has anyone ever made copies of the various articles you have mentioned in this article, and sent them to the present Bishop of Manchester? I know you would have no way of knowing whether he read them–but maybe, just maybe if enough prayers went with them, the Bishop would be led by the Holy Spirit to study them.

I agree with Patricia, God bless you, Mr. McDonald. You, your family and all those who courageously fight for justice in Fr. MacRae’s case are in my family’s prayers. What a great, but sobering post. Thank you for sharing the truth with us. St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us.